Two-Phase Cell Switching in 6G vHetNets: Sleeping-Cell Load Estimation and Renewable-Aware Switching Toward NES

Abstract

This paper proposes a two phase framework to improve the sustainability in vertical heterogeneous networks that integrate various types of base stations~(BSs), including terrestrial macro BSs~(MBSs), small BSs~(SBSs), and a high altitude platform station super MBS (HAPS SMBS). In Phase I, we address the critical and often overlooked challenge of estimating the traffic load of sleeping SBSs, a prerequisite for practical cell switching, by introducing three methods with varying data dependencies: (i) a distance based estimator (no historical data), (ii) a multi level clustering (MLC) estimator (limited historical data), and (iii) a long short term memory~(LSTM) based temporal predictor (full historical data). In Phase II, we incorporate the most accurate estimation results from Phase I into a renewable energy aware cell switching strategy, explicitly modeling solar powered SBSs in three operational scenarios that reflect realistic hybrid grid renewable deployments. This flexible design allows the framework to adapt switching strategies based on renewable availability and storage conditions, making it more practical and robust for real world networks. Using a real call detail record dataset from Milan, simulation results show that the LSTM method achieves a mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) below 1% in Phase I, while in Phase II, the threshold based solar integration scenario achieves up to 23% network energy saving (NES) relative to conventional cell switching. Overall, the proposed framework bridges the gap between theoretical cell switching models and practical, sustainable 6G radio access network~(RAN) operation, enabling significant energy saving without compromising quality of service.